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Hello, and welcome back to Everyday Science.

I don’t normally cover disease “awareness days”, appointed by medical charities to bring their topic extra focus and funding. But my attention was caught by the British Heart Foundation’s current campaign around May Measurement Month.

This is a drive for everyone to get their blood pressure measured, and the charity has used the occasion to release a check list of eight steps for lowering blood pressure – some of which may be less well known.

High blood pressure is said to be the single biggest modifiable risk factor for poor health in developed countries, such as the UK. It raises the risk of heart attacks, strokes and several other conditions, and yet may go unnoticed for years.